Thursday, May 20, 2021

20 May 2021: Feds Probing Cuomo VIP COVID Testing Scandal

Criminal Probe of Andrew Cuomo Administration Broadens to Covid-19 Testing Issues

This report confirms a federal investigation has expanded to include the allegations Governor Cuomo's family, friends, and connected political associates obtained special priority COVID testing from New York's Department of Health at a time when COVID testing supplies were in very short supply.

Federal investigators are examining whether New York state officials gave priority access to Covid-19 testing to some of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s close associates and his brother during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to people familiar with the matter.

The review of the testing marks an expansion of the probe that the investigators, based in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, opened in February to look at how the Cuomo administration handled Covid-19 in nursing homes.

Prosecutors have recently contacted and scheduled interviews with officials in the Democratic governor’s office who worked on the testing program, some of the people said.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that people familiar with the testing program said Covid-19 specimens taken from state officials and other people close to the governor—including his brother, Chris Cuomo, a CNN anchor—were given priority processing at a state laboratory. The testing was done in March and April of 2020, when testing resources were scarce.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined to comment.

Here is some of the timeline's coverage of what we've called the "Looking Out for Número Cuomo" testing scandal:

We don't yet know if the new federal investigation prompted into the Governor Cuomo's COVID testing scandal played a role in prompting the recently reported resignation of Dr. Eleanor Adams from New York's Department of Health.

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